# I want to homebrew, any body here do it?



## riverdawg (Dec 4, 2006)

I have wanted to brew for a while now. Anyone have some pointers on how to get started? I have read over at HomeBrewTalk.com and I guess all I need not is a brew kit and ingredients. I started collecting bottles a few weeks ago and still need to empty a few  But I feel im close.


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## replicant_argent (May 13, 2006)

Go to a good home brewing store or find one on the internet.

Buy Charlie Papazians book and salivate while reading.

Or go to a do-it-yourself place to familiarize yourself with the process.


I'm going to whack out a batch or two this year after just learning myself.


How hard can it be?


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## riverdawg (Dec 4, 2006)

I have read a ton about it. It doesnt look hard, just complicated. I will get Chariles book this weekend. but im going to have to mail order everything, there is no supply house in MB that I have found.


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## Commander Quan (May 6, 2003)

Once you actually get started you'll see it's not that difficult Papazians book is a good resource and the homebrewtalk forum is great too, a lot of good guys on there.


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## Silhanek (Oct 23, 2006)

I have a friend that brews. From what he's told me, it's fairly easy, but just takes a couple batches to get the process down smooth. Things like making sure bottles are sterilized perfectly and not getting too much air bubbles when bottling.


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## Habanolover (Feb 22, 2006)

riverdawg said:


> I have read a ton about it. It doesnt look hard, just complicated. I will get Chariles book this weekend. but im going to have to mail order everything, there is no supply house in MB that I have found.


None in MB that I know of Casey.


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## boonedoggle (Jun 23, 2006)

Not a clue on how to brew, but I would like to sample some when you get finished...as long as it doesn't make me blind or anything...


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## Habanolover (Feb 22, 2006)

boonedoggle said:


> Not a clue on how to brew, but I would like to sample some when you get finished...as long as it doesn't make me blind or anything...


:tpd: Brew us up some of that clear stuff Casey and I will turn it into Kahlua.:r


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## riverdawg (Dec 4, 2006)

boonedoggle said:


> Not a clue on how to brew, but I would like to sample some when you get finished...as long as it doesn't make me blind or anything...


I like to taste the beer not get my wiener put in the ground by it. I most certainly will try to send a few if I can get off the ground. 



madurolover said:


> :tpd: Brew us up some of that clear stuff Casey and I will turn it into Kahlua.:r


That stuff was awesome!! :al


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## King James (Dec 18, 2005)

If you find Stacey on skype he can prolly help you... I know he has done it for awhile


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## MTUCache (Jan 20, 2007)

Do yourself a favor and check out the "Good Eats" episode where Alton Brown does his own brew. He's got some great insight into what works and what doesn't. It's a pretty simplistic look into homebrewing, and I'm sure you'll learn a lot more from some other brew-oriented material, but I think there's a ton of good information in there for a first-time brewer.

I've never done one myself, but my uncle loves to brew his own. I think I may have to give that a try this year.


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## riverdawg (Dec 4, 2006)

MTUCache said:


> Do yourself a favor and check out the "Good Eats" episode where Alton Brown does his own brew. He's got some great insight into what works and what doesn't. It's a pretty simplistic look into homebrewing, and I'm sure you'll learn a lot more from some other brew-oriented material, but I think there's a ton of good information in there for a first-time brewer.
> 
> I've never done one myself, but my uncle loves to brew his own. I think I may have to give that a try this year.


I freeking love Alton Brown, and reading your post I somewhat remember that episode. The more I convince myself to do it the easy begging my wife will be


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## Commander Quan (May 6, 2003)

MTUCache said:


> Do yourself a favor and check out the "Good Eats" episode where Alton Brown does his own brew. He's got some great insight into what works and what doesn't. It's a pretty simplistic look into homebrewing, and I'm sure you'll learn a lot more from some other brew-oriented material, but I think there's a ton of good information in there for a first-time brewer.
> 
> I've never done one myself, but my uncle loves to brew his own. I think I may have to give that a try this year.


That episode of Good Eats is my least favorite of all, Yes what he is doing is making beer but you can tell that Alton is not an avid homebrewer. He misuses the terminology and simplifies it so much that he isn't even brewing a beer style. The best advice is get a book buy a kit and start brewing if the Vikings could do it 800 years ago you can too.


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## gvarsity (Dec 12, 2006)

Cleanliness is next to Godliness!!! Just sterilize everything and don't set your equipment down on unsterile surfaces. Follow a receipe the first couple of batches to get used to the process. Using a kit that uses a syrup/pre boiled wort/ for your wort the first time out can make it easier and take a couple steps out of the process. Still makes fine drinkable beer. The satisfaction of having made your own beer tastes the same the first time anyway.  If you are someone who likes to go headfirst by all means make your own wort it is not that much harder just more steps to go wrong the first time. Once you have made a couple brews from receipes make changes to fit your taste in small increments. It is very easy to make borderline beer by just throwing in ingredients. Get twice to three times as many bottles as you think you need. You will find yourself wanting to have one batch aging while you are brewing your next batch and probably have a batch you are drinking as well. I found a local bar that had a grolsch special with the hermetically sealed bottles. I went at bar time like 3-4 weeks in a row and got a ton of re-sealable 16oz bottles. Good luck.


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## tnip23 (Oct 31, 2006)

all good advice here, sterilize, cp's book, etc. Only thing I would add is get a starter kit (equipment) and start out using extract as opposed to all grain brewing. Midwest supplies has some great extract kits. Here's the link.http://www.brew-winemaking.com/brewwine/Default.aspx
Also using a turkey fryer or some similar equipment for boiling is much easier and less messy than the stovetop. Good luck and have fun.


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## riverdawg (Dec 4, 2006)

Right on, thanks for all the killer info. I found http://www.morebeer.com, they have killer ingredient kits, a few from Rouge brewing, one of my favs.

Off to spend cash money, thanks again!!


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## Studebaker (Jan 29, 2007)

There you go, you've found yet another slope to slide down! Before you know it you'll be like my father-in-law. He's been brewing for about 15 years and now has a refrigerator in his indoor pool room. It has been retro-fitted with his keg inside and a tap on the outside of the door. You don't even have to open the door to refill your mug!


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## riverdawg (Dec 4, 2006)

Studebaker said:


> There you go, you've found yet another slope to slide down! Before you know it you'll be like my father-in-law. He's been brewing for about 15 years and now has a refrigerator in his indoor pool room. It has been retro-fitted with his keg inside and a tap on the outside of the door. You don't even have to open the door to refill your mug!


Lawls I wish I had room, My wife and liver are gonna strangle me!!


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## hooperjetcar (Dec 14, 2006)

Another good site is homebrewadventures.com, based out of Charlotte, NC. My advice:
1. Don't get a pre-hopped kit (the hops should not be pre-added to the malt)
2. Use a pitchable tube of white labs yeast suitable for the style you are brewing.
3. reiteration of keep everything clean.
4. seriously look at kegging, bottling is a PITA, and the setup for kegging isn't that much more.
5. check out the beer forums at homebrew.com, lots of good advice (kinda like here)


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## Vanderburgh (Aug 9, 2006)

Ease is all in the kits. I use Festa Brew. These are high quality brewers wort where no water is added. Amazing beers indeed!


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## TU09 (Mar 26, 2006)

tnip23 said:


> Midwest supplies has some great extract kits.


I've had good success ordering from Midwest and they have great prices on equipment kits for those just getting started. I strongly suggest considering their site for both equipment and ingredient kits.


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## dayplanner (Dec 11, 1997)

I have not watched the Good Eats episode where Alton brews however, James Spencer at basicbrewingradio.com pointed out several things he did wrong during that episode. Check out the podcasts at basicbrewingradio.com - they are a good resource...I don't know exactly which episode he points out the things Alton did wrong...

Papazian's book or How to Brew by John Palmer would be a good starting point. I personally like Palmer's book and highly recommend it.

Also...check out this other thread for more info.

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=51761

I learned the most from some guys at CigarWeekly, the morebeer forums, How to Brew by John Palmer.

Good luck!


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## SilvrBck (Sep 8, 2003)

I've been a homebrewer for over 10 years. Brewing is not hard at all and at first everything seems so overly complex. It doesn't need to be that way. The most complex part about all of brewing is mashing and you don't need to do that. That's what malt extract is for! If you can heat up canned chicken soup and throw in a pinch of fresh herbs then you can make excellent quality beer at home, with a lot of household kitchen items you may already have, for a fraction of the cost of commercial brews. Here's some basics:

Just keep everything sterilized and you can drink your mistakes.  Malt is partially germinated barley. They soak it in water til it starts to sprout then they dry it by kilning. To get the sugar out of the malt, you need to mash. Mashing is just soaking the grain in hot water so that the enzymes in the grain convert the starches to fermentable sugars. The new homebrewer doesn't need to worry about that though. There are readily available sources of great malt extract that have done this process for you and have condensed the product into a thick syrup. Nice. Then you have hops. Hops are cheap and GOOD. Hops have 2 things we are interested in: resiny bitter compounds and good smelling volitile compounds. You boil hops to extract the bitterness but the good smelling part boils away. So, you add hops at different times in the boil to extract different hop qualities. Hops added early are primary in there for bitterness. Hops added late in the boil benefit the aroma. Then, you need yeast to convert the sugars to alcohol (and CO2). The yeast do the really hard part. You prepare their food and then the yeasties go to town. Many people advocate pure liquid strains of yeast. Yes they are good, BUT, they cost $7 a vial, you may have to make a starter if you are doing a really strong beer, and you need to aerate the beer when you toss in the yeast to get them going strong. There are new, dry yeast strains on the market that are absolutely pure, give you more then enough yeast cells for a proper fermentation, and they cost $2 a pack! I love dry yeast and use it almost exclusively. Once the yeast has done it's thing you simply need to have patience to allow things to settle out of the beer (clarify) and then you add a little extra sugar for the yeast to eat and imediately bottle the beer. The yeast eat the sugar in the bottle, creating a little more alcohol and CO2 and then you have carbonated beer. Chill it and enjoy.

You need:


a boiling kettle, 2.5 gallon + capacity
a large stirring spoon
a colander 
a 6.5 gallon + food grade plastic bucket with lid
airlock
sanitizer (iodophor)
racking cane with tubing
bottle filler
capper
caps
bottles
Ingredients:


malt extract-sugars for the yeast to eat (note that roughly 70-75% of the sugars can be consumed by the yeast so ,the more you add, the more alcohol and more body the beer will have)
specialty grain-these contribute no sugars but help to impart desired color and flavor components to the beer. That's how Guiness looks like it is strong as hell but has the same alcohol % as Bud Light! You make a tea with the grains and then drain the tea into your boiling kettle. The colander works perfect for this. Very easy.
hops-just use hop pellets. They're easy. Use some early in the boil and some late.
yeast-pitch it into the wort (unfermented beer). Make sure the wort is below 85F or so or it will kill the yeast. I used to boil 2 gallons or so and then dump that into my plastic bucket which already contained 3.5 gallons of ice cold water. This dropped the temp perfectly to pitching ranges.

Typical brew session:
Heat some water in a pot until steaming hot but not boiling. Dump in your specialty grains. Allow to soak for 45 minutes or so. Drain the liquid into your boiling kettle. Add malt extract. Add water. You want to boil as much volume as you can but be sure to leave plenty of space at the top of your kettle because it will foam up a bit at first and could boil over. Be careful. Once you get the wort boiling, add your bittering hops and start the timer. Aim for a 60 minute boil. Stir occasionally. You want to maintain a rigorous boil. Add additional hops throughout the boil if you want. I love hop aroma so I always add hops late in the boil. Turn off the heat after 60 minutes. Sanitize your plastic bucket fermentor. Add 2-3 gallons of ice cold bottled water to the bucket. Drain in the boiling hot wort. Check the temp. If it is cold enough, sanitize the yeast packet and dump in the yeast. Remember, anything that touches the beer after the boil must be fully sanitized. Stir the yeast in vigorously. Attach the lid to the bucket and the airlock. You just made beer.

Cheers,
SB


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## Silhanek (Oct 23, 2006)

My friend that brews has the plastic kit from this page for $60. Ingredients and empty bottles are all that is needed on top of that. Not bad for getting started.


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## tnip23 (Oct 31, 2006)

SilvrBck said:


> I've been a homebrewer for over 10 years. Brewing is not hard at all and at first everything seems so overly complex. It doesn't need to be that way. The most complex part about all of brewing is mashing and you don't need to do that. That's what malt extract is for! If you can heat up canned chicken soup and throw in a pinch of fresh herbs then you can make excellent quality beer at home, with a lot of household kitchen items you may already have, for a fraction of the cost of commercial brews. Here's some basics:
> 
> Just keep everything sterilized and you can drink your mistakes. Malt is partially germinated barley. They soak it in water til it starts to sprout then they dry it by kilning. To get the sugar out of the malt, you need to mash. Mashing is just soaking the grain in hot water so that the enzymes in the grain convert the starches to fermentable sugars. The new homebrewer doesn't need to worry about that though. There are readily available sources of great malt extract that have done this process for you and have condensed the product into a thick syrup. Nice. Then you have hops. Hops are cheap and GOOD. Hops have 2 things we are interested in: resiny bitter compounds and good smelling volitile compounds. You boil hops to extract the bitterness but the good smelling part boils away. So, you add hops at different times in the boil to extract different hop qualities. Hops added early are primary in there for bitterness. Hops added late in the boil benefit the aroma. Then, you need yeast to convert the sugars to alcohol (and CO2). The yeast do the really hard part. You prepare their food and then the yeasties go to town. Many people advocate pure liquid strains of yeast. Yes they are good, BUT, they cost $7 a vial, you may have to make a starter if you are doing a really strong beer, and you need to aerate the beer when you toss in the yeast to get them going strong. There are new, dry yeast strains on the market that are absolutely pure, give you more then enough yeast cells for a proper fermentation, and they cost $2 a pack! I love dry yeast and use it almost exclusively. Once the yeast has done it's thing you simply need to have patience to allow things to settle out of the beer (clarify) and then you add a little extra sugar for the yeast to eat and imediately bottle the beer. The yeast eat the sugar in the bottle, creating a little more alcohol and CO2 and then you have carbonated beer. Chill it and enjoy.
> 
> ...


other than the yeast opinion, I concur. Liquid yeast runs $5-6 and is well worth the price when you taste the beer. If you are making a high alcohol beer just pitch two tubes or packs and you will have plenty of cells to complete fermentation. Good yeast=Good beer unless you are making a plain-jane beer that doesn't rely on the unique tastes that a good yeast will add.


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## riverdawg (Dec 4, 2006)

Right O, just need to start working my gear list. Should be a few more weeks or so and I should be set


thanks one more time for all the great help guys!


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## SilvrBck (Sep 8, 2003)

tnip23 said:


> other than the yeast opinion, I concur. Liquid yeast runs $5-6 and is well worth the price when you taste the beer. If you are making a high alcohol beer just pitch two tubes or packs and you will have plenty of cells to complete fermentation. Good yeast=Good beer unless you are making a plain-jane beer that doesn't rely on the unique tastes that a good yeast will add.


I will defend dry yeast til the day I die! :bx I'm not talking about the little packets of unknown origin strapped under the lid of a pre-hopped malt tin. I'm talking about pure strains such as Nottingham and SafeAle yeasts. They are just as pure as any liquid strain and virtually identical to their liquid counterparts. Safale 56, Wyeast 1056, White Labs WLP001, and California Ale yeast are all the same yeast which can be used successfully in a huge number of styles. The only real drawback is that there are much fewer pure, dry strains to choose from. I've used Nottingham and SafeAle but I primarily brew American Pale Ales and IPAs. If you really want to hit a specific style then you may not have a choice if a comparable dry strain is not available. Experimentation in brewing is all part of the game. All I know is that when I go to the brewmart and I see White Labs 001 there for $7 or a SafeAle packet for $2 and I know they are identical then I buy the SafeAle. YMMV. Happy brewing! :al

SB


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## tnip23 (Oct 31, 2006)

SilvrBck said:


> I will defend dry yeast til the day I die! :bx I'm not talking about the little packets of unknown origin strapped under the lid of a pre-hopped malt tin. I'm talking about pure strains such as Nottingham and SafeAle yeasts. They are just as pure as any liquid strain and virtually identical to their liquid counterparts. Safale 56, Wyeast 1056, White Labs WLP001, and California Ale yeast are all the same yeast which can be used successfully in a huge number of styles. The only real drawback is that there are much fewer pure, dry strains to choose from. I've used Nottingham and SafeAle but I primarily brew American Pale Ales and IPAs. If you really want to hit a specific style then you may not have a choice if a comparable dry strain is not available. Experimentation in brewing is all part of the game. All I know is that when I go to the brewmart and I see White Labs 001 there for $7 or a SafeAle packet for $2 and I know they are identical then I buy the SafeAle. YMMV. Happy brewing! :al
> 
> SB


I agree with you silvrbck. I've made good beers with dry yeast, but to make a good Belgian or true Scotch ale, the liquids are the way to go. Also for the # of cells and ease of use, I don't find them that expensive. Just keep making good beer, that's all that matters. There's no better time for a cigar than during a nice long boil. Cheers.


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